Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus c3.12

c3.12

RÁM RÁZ was born at Tanjore, in the Carnatic, about the year 1790. He was small of stature, of a delicate frame, of a fair complexion for an Asiatic, and had a remarkably brilliant and piercing eye. On public occasions there was in his manner, though on the whole graceful and easy, a diffidence which might lead the cursory observer to undervalue his abilities; but by those to whom he was known in private, it was more justly attributed to innate modesty and humility. His name implies that he was of a superior caste; and he used to boast of being a collateral descendant of RÁM RÁJ, or RÁM RÁZ, the last of the kings of *Vijayanagar*; and as the name is often met with in the genealogy of those princes, it is not improbable that it may have thus descended to him.